Steam Center Blog

A few days ago a tweet from President Obama described how natural reserves are being expanded in USA by his actions. I tweeted back my congratulations but also added a suggestion to the President – Please enhance the natural beauty and usefulness by adding to these lands, more lakes and forests. With recent climate extremes many have realized usefulness of forests in mitigating adverse climate conditions and efforts are underway in many countries to increase forest lands. This effort by humans is needed because in the past, humans have removed many trees and forests from the land in order to meet their immediate short term needs. While it is a good idea to create more forests it is also worth creating more lakes within these forests. Such lakes add to the beauty and also help increase ground water levels. That is where tree roots find water when it has been a dry season for an extended period. This note is too brief for the topic of creation of lakes and forests. Much inf...

A Pond T he term "blue revolution" refers to the development of lakes and ponds with rapid introduction of aquaculture as an important and productive agricultural activity.  Aquaculture has long been practiced in China where freshwater fish have been grown as food in managed ponds for thousands of years. In recent decades, however, the practice of aquaculture has spread around the world and emerged as a profitable new introduction to agricultural activities “The rapid development of aquaculture in recent years has been likened to a Blue Revolution that matches the Green Revolution of higher grain yields from the 1950s onward.”    J. D. Sachs, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/promise-of-the-blue-revolution-july-2007/ Why a Blue Revolution is urgently needed The New Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has emphasized the need for such a blue revolution in India. Aside from its agricultural contribution, there is an even more urg...

The lake at Nainital, a town in the Himalayas W ith a rising population on our planet, particularly in cities, ensuring fresh water supplies of a good quality is an issue facing many cities around the world. Cities derive their water from surface sources such as lakes and rivers or from underground sources. It seems that in India two thirds of fresh water requirements are met by ground water. With an increase in human activity both sources of water are getting depleted besides getting polluted. Surface water is polluted if waste water from cities and industries is dumped directly into natural lakes and rivers without treatment. Such pollution can be reduced if  water is first directed/dumped into artificial canals and lakes instead. From here it purifies slowly by bacterial action and the water that seeps into ground is purified by filtration through soil. However some pollutants such as nitrates from fertilizers that dissolve in water can reach ground reservoirs pollu...

Q. Will our cities become short of water with expansion? As cities expand a greater pressure is being put on water resources required to meet the needs of urban populations in cities around the world. There is a need to maintain adequate water supply as well as the quality of the water supplied so that health of urban dwellers does not deteriorate. It must be remembered that water for the most part is not destroyed by use. With proper recycling and management, urban dwellers need not suffer water shortage. This point needs to be highlighted before we proceed, With proper management and recycling, urban areas can avoid shortages and poor quality of water Q. What is the proper and inexpensive way to recycle water? There is a proper way to recycle water and an improper way. The proper way mimics natural processes through which water has been recycled on land for millions of year, which is collecting it in ponds where an initial purification takes place by aerobic and anaero...